Some reasons why legal groups have to adhere to corporate IT standards – from long ago

“One of the considerations involved in managing the automation of a corporate law department is the obligation to follow corporate standards. This becomes important in order to allow for support staff mobility [RWM: so that IT support and administrative staff can use the software wherever they go within the company], volume purchase agreements [RWM: to save money and streamline procurement] and compatibility when documents or files are transferred between departments [RWM: to avoid the hassles of conversion]. A corporate standard may stipulate which word processing software may be utilized, the brand of PCs which may be purchased, selection of the network operating system and the vendor to be used for sourcing acquisitions.”

All this makes sense. Would you believe this comes from a law department’s presentation 15 years ago, in 1994?

Other reasons for legal departments to toe the line on corporate technology standards include the resulting efficiencies of training people, the greater ease IT has of updating new releases, and the enhance ability of help desks to support the software and hardware of the company.